Trick or Treat or Time to Take Over the World
by GreatOne
Summary: Brain tries to take over the world on Halloween.


My second story for the Spooky Story Challenge from over at TFN!

Words I had to use in this story – cadaver, fog, midnight

* * *

**Trick or Treat or Time to Take Over the World!**

"Do you know what tonight is, Brain? Huh, huh, huh? Do you?"

The short lab mouse with an excessively large cranium gave an exaggerated sigh as his attention was drawn away from his complicated circuit board. "Tonight I plan on becoming High Potentate of this miserable planet. As soon as I get these wires soldered together, I shall have the final component in place for my Giganormous Brainwave Modulator."

"Is that what you're going to be?" Pinky asked excitedly, jumping up and down. "I hope it's a good enough costume that people give you lots and lots of candy. Mostly chocolate candy, though. I like gummy bears, too, but I'm not fond of candy corn. It's cute, but it doesn't taste so good. Do you like candy corn, Brain?"

Brain gave a groan as he put down his soldering iron. "Whatever are you talking about now, Pinky?"

"Trick-or-Treating. I'm planning on dressing up as a Sopwith Camel, but, honestly, I don't know what a Giganormous Brainwave Modulator even looks like."

"In the first place," Brain said with strained patience, "my Giganormous Brainwave Modulator is not a costume. It is the latest machine I have created, which will turn all human children into mindless zombies that will obey my every command. But it will only work tonight, on Halloween, because all their brains will be super-charged on sugar. I must find the highest point in town, and then, precisely at **midnight**, I will turn on my machine and voila! I will have complete control over the hyperactive brats, and it will be very simple to order them to make their parents toe the proverbial line. After careful observation, I have discovered that parents will do anything at all to keep their little monsters happy."

"Oh. I see," Pinky said, rolling his tongue over his lips thoughtfully. "Will that machine turn out better than your Jack-o-lantronic transmitter? The one you created to try and control the Ewoks on Endor?"

"That machine worked just fine and dandy," Brain argued in annoyance. "It wasn't my fault those idiotic Ewoks didn't have the sense to take over the galaxy in an orderly fashion and smashed it into a thousand pieces before I could stop them."

"Once you have control of all the children, can you order them to give us all their candy?"

"And in the second place," Brain continued, unfazed by Pinky's candy obsession, "you simply cannot dress up as a Sopwith Camel. That makes no sense whatsoever."

"It doesn't?" Pinky asked, flummoxed. "I thought maybe we could dress up together and you could be the second hump."

"What?"

"The camel's second hump. I suppose I could be the second hump, but since I'm so much taller than you are, that might look pretty weird."

Brain worked his jaw, trying to keep himself from shouting. "Pinky, a Sopwith Camel is NOT an actual camel. It is a World War One airplane."

"Really?"

"Really, truly."

"You know Brain, I've been thinking. I don't want to be a Sopwith Camel anymore."

"What do you want to be?"

"Carmen Miranda! You don't happen to have an extra large banana hat lying around that you're not using, do you?"

* * *

Pinky wore a wide brimmed hat covered with plastic fruit and a colorful dress with accented with a bright scarf, and he tightly grasped a large, brown paper bag as if it were the most valuable object in the world. Brain had decided to wear a brown business suit and an oddly combed dull yellow hairpiece, and he was pulling a red wagon which held his Giganormous Brainwave Modulator. Both mice set out for their evening's goal - Pinky's goal to gather as much chocolate as possible, while Brain's goal, as always, was to take over the world.

"So, what's your costume supposed to be, Brain?"

"I decided to get a jump-start on being the High Potentate; therefore I have dressed up as The Donald. I have surmised it won't be such a shock to humanity when I make my first televised appearance if I already look exactly like their favorite megalomaniac."

"Oh, looky! This is the first house where we can get some candy!" Pinky declared, pointing toward a towering stone edifice, which lay past a rusting stone gate. Between the safety of the sidewalk and the front door to the grim house was a row of flat, upright slabs which looked suspiciously like headstones.

Brain gazed up at the imposing old mansion, watching as a bat flew out of the belfry. "I'm not certain we should stop at this particular establishment. It looks rather… abandoned."

"Nah," Pinky argued. "The homeowners have only gotten into the true spirit of Halloween."

"Which would be... death?"

"Zort!" Pinky shouted as he took off without further ado, pushing open the creaking gate and skipping down the weed-strewn path. This forced a rather reluctant Brain to follow.

As Brain pulled his trusty Red Rider wagon behind, he noticed a sudden **fog** had billowed up, so thick and cold that it blocked their view of the roadway they'd just left behind. "Pinky," Brain called out, hurrying to catch up to his oblivious friend. "This spooky mist has appeared from nowhere, and the temperature has dropped at least ten degrees. Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

Pinky stopped his mad rush to the door and turned to regard Brain. "I think so, Brain. But if they ran horse races backwards, wouldn't the loser be the winner?"

Brain rubbed his large forehead, trying to ward off an impending migraine while Pinky jumped up and grabbed a doorknocker which was molded in the shape of a gargoyle. With great effort, mostly due to the fact Pinky was small and the doorknocker was very heavy, he managed to bang on the door.

For a long time, there was no answer. "Well, we tried. Onto the next house," Brain declared, rather relieved there was no one home.

No sooner had those words left his mouth, than the lock gave a soft click and then the door creaked nosily open. "See? Someone IS home!" Pinky cried out happily, holding out his sack. "Trick or Treat, smell my feet!"

A pale, gaunt face appeared in the doorway, and the tall man gazed out at them dispassionately. "Are you here for the party?" a deep voice grated out slowly.

"Is there a Halloween Party here tonight?" Pinky questioned, his eyes lighting up at the prospect. "Do you have lots of candy?"

"Follow me," the man ordered, pushing open the door and indicating the mice should enter the cob-web filled house.

Pinky started forward, only to have Brain try to hold him back. "Pinky! This is a bad idea!"

"Like you've never have any bad ideas!"

"Well, this is worse than my usual ideas, if I do say so myself." Brain waved toward the lumbering butler, who was shuffling away without waiting to see if the mice were even following. "I am not certain that human is even alive… he's probably a walking **cadaver**!"

"He's a Spanish guy of high nobility?" Pinky asked in awe. "I wonder if my Carmen Miranda costume has offended him in some way. People are so hypersensitive these days. I sure hope he doesn't sue and take me for everything I have."

"You have nothing, Pinky, not even a passing thought," Brain stated. "And I didn't say caballero… I said he's a cadaver! A DEAD guy!"

"A_ zombie_? I've always wanted to meet a real, live zombie," Pinky said breathlessly as he rushed to follow their host.

Brain could only shake his head in despair and follow his impulsive friend deeper into the foreboding home.

* * *

After a long walk through a maze of hallways, the two mice finally arrived at what seemed to be their final destination. To Brain's utter surprise, it actually was a party of some type. Adult people, dressed in all types of odd outfits, danced around, stopping only to dip their drinking cups into a large black metal caldron of something that must have been liquid, although red smoke seemed to be wafting up from the bowl. Red strobe lights filled the room, catching the sparkling disco ball hanging overhead and making the room look like it was dripping in blood.

"Isn't this the neatest Halloween party, ever?" Pinky said, clapping his hands together in glee.

"I suppose," Brain conceded reluctantly. "It appears that there are not only zombies in this house, but vampires, ghouls and hobgoblins of all types."

"That makes us seriously underdressed, doesn't it?" asked Pinky, looking down at his flowery dress.

"It hardly matters what we are wearing, since no one is paying the least bit of attention to us. However, I do have an idea."

"Narf! I love your ideas, Brain. Even the ones that end in total defeat and humiliation."

"I _never_ have ideas that end in humiliation," said Brain, miffed. "As a great mouse once said, valuable lessons are learned from defeat."

"Mickey said that? Really?"

"Not Mickey – ME! I said it! Mickey is certainly not greater than I am!"

"But Mickey already has his very own world," Pinky pointed out. "I'm not too sure he learned his lessons from his feet, though."

"Feet? Now what are you babbling about?"

"Valuable lessons are learned from the feet. You just said that yourself."

"That plastic banana perched on your head is brighter that you are, Pinky."

"It_ is_ pretty colorful," Pinky admitted cheerfully.

Annoyed, Brain ordered, "Help me take my Giganormous Brainwave Modulator up to the belfry. It has occurred to me that it must be the highest point in town, and it is the exact spot I need to send out my mind-control signals to the pre-adolescent youngsters of Acme. At the correct moment I will turn it on, and then nothing can stop me from taking over the world!"

"Won't our hosts think we're being rude, leaving the party?" Pinky asked, pointing to the raucous conga line that was dancing around the boiling pot.

"I doubt they will notice," said Brain, tugging his wagon out of the noisy room.

Brain and Pinky struggled to get the machine up several flights of creaky staircases, finally arriving at the dusty belfry. Carefully, Brain placed his machine on the ledge, and pointed the hand-held dish antenna toward the town.

"Exactly at the stroke of twelve, I will flip the switch, and the world will be mine! Mine, I tell you!"

"Brain?"

The short mouse turned toward his friend. "Now what do you want?"

Pinky held up a disconnected cord. "Where are you going to plug it in?"

"Plug…?" Brain stopped talking, suddenly realizing he'd made a terrible mistake. There wasn't an electrical outlet in the entire belfry. "We must locate an extension cord, and quickly. It's already eleven forty-five!"

"Egad, Brain! That's not much time, is it?"

"Not at all, so we must hurry… back to the party room. I'm sure they won't notice if we borrow one of their electrical cords for a short while."

"Okay, sounds like a good plan to me," Pinky said.

* * *

Both mice rushed back down the stairs, and hurried back into the party room where they spent several frantic minutes trying to locate an extension cord long enough to reach the belfry. Finally Pinky found a orange cord coiled against the wall, and gave the end section a hard tug. Unfortunately, this particular cord was attached to the disco ball, and by disconnecting it from the wall, the disco ball came crashing down from the ceiling and into the boiling caldron, which immediately tipped over, sending the beverage cascading out, which made the floor extremely slippery. The party-goers crashed and slid into each other, sending everyone down to the floor in a big heap. At that point, someone pointed toward Pinky and shouted the house was overrun with vermin, and frantic humans tried desperately to make their escape. Meanwhile, off in the distance, a siren could be heard over the din of screaming.

"Brain! The police are here!" Pinky shouted, running around with the extension cord and trying to avoid being squashed by human feet. "They must be coming to arrest the vermin!…. Wait!…. What's a vermin?"

"It's another word for teenagers," Brain yelled back. "We need to get back up to the belfry before the stroke of midnight or my plan is ruined! It will be another year before the simultaneous sugar rush reoccurs!"

The mice desperately hurried back up the wobbling stairs, and found an electrical outlet in the hallway that led up to the belfry. Pinky stuck the prongs in the socket while Brain, holding the other end of the cord, ran up the final steps toward his machine. He was steps away from making the connection… when the length of the cord ran just short of his goal. At that moment, a far-off church clock chimed, making twelve loud dongs.

"NOOOO!" Brain screamed in horror, dropping to his knees and hanging his head.

Pinky stuck his head into the belfry. "Brain? What's the matter? Did you just discover your long-lost father was a Sith?"

"It was too short, Pinky," Brain sobbed. "Inches too short!"

"We're both too short," Pinky agreed, patting his friend on the back. "But there's always next year."

Resolutely, Brain stood up and gathered up his Giganormous Brainwave Modulator. "I have no intention of waiting until next Halloween. I shall go back to the laboratory and work on my next big plan, for tomorrow night is yet another waiting opportunity."

"What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?"

"The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Tomorrow night, we take over the world!"

**THE END**


End file.
